BOLTS Broadcast - January 6-10, 2025
As the holiday season draws near, our halls were filled with both learning and excitement today! This time of year gives us the chance to reflect on all we’ve accomplished together and look forward to the bright new year ahead.
We are so grateful for the joy, support, and partnership you bring to our school community.Whether through encouraging your student’s learning, volunteering your time, or simply cheering from the sidelines, you help make our school a place where everyone can thrive!
Over the winter break, we hope you take time to recharge, create lasting memories, and, most importantly, enjoy moments of peace and warmth with those you hold dear. For families celebrating holidays, we wish you all the magic of the season, and for those simply embracing the quieter days, may it be a restful and rejuvenating time.
Thank you for being part of the Lufkin Road Middle School family. We’ll see you in 2025 for another wonderful chapter together!
Separately, we had so much fun with Spirit Week! Thank you to our Student Council leaders for planning such a fun week! Check out Twitter/X for some photos of our fun! We also had a wonderful Cultural Arts Assembly on Thursday! Ask your child(ren) about the interactive African musicians! Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring these assemblies! Opportunities like this can happen because of you, too! Without your support of our PTA, they would not be able to offer events like this! Thank YOU for supporting our PTA!
Thank you also to the many families that supported our lunch coverage and staff potluck! It is in these types of moments and events that teachers feel the love! Thank YOU for supporting our school!
8th GRADE FIELD TRIP
As a reminder, final payments for the 8th grade trip to DC are due on 1/6/25.You can click here for an update regarding the trip.
MC MATH 8 COMPETITION
It's Not Too Late to Sign Your Student Up for the AMC 8 Math Competition! Lufkin Road MS competes in 2 premier math competitions each year: the AMC 8 (20 questions in 40 minutes to be given in school on Thursday, Jan 23rd) and the Raleigh Chapter Mathcounts competition to be held the morning and early afternoon of Saturday, February 15th at Athens Road High School.
If you would like for your child to compete in the AMC 8, please email Linda Gardner at lgardner@wcpss.net. Student scores on the AMC 8 will help the coaches determine the selection of students to be invited to compete for Lufkin Road MS in the Mathcounts competition in February.
NEW SRO
We are excited to welcome our new SRO, Officer Pete to our campus starting on January 6th. SRO Pete comes with experience from Florida and will be accompanying SRO Joe for a few days before SRO Joe will return to his post at the Apex elementary schools. We’ve loved having SRO Joe on campus and appreciate all that he did to connect with our community and keep our school safe! Please join me in welcoming SRO Pete!
SCHOOL AND OFFICE CLOSURES
Our school, including our front office, will be closed on Wednesday, November 27th and Monday, December 23rd.
MS. BARLOW - RETIRED!
Many of you are already aware, but I am delighted to share the news that I am celebrating over 20 years of teaching in North Carolina and my upcoming retirement on New Year's Day! It's quite the best timing to begin a new year AND what I am calling "My Act 3" (note, not the Final Act, LOL).
I am humbled and blessed that I was able to enjoy such purposeful work at Lufkin over the years -- boosting artistic confidence and fostering lifelong wonder in our students, while cherishing close relationships with so many of our families. I am going to truly miss my Lufkin family, students, parents, and community.
7th GRADE DANCE
We are hoping to have more families use SchoolCash Online for our school events, as the processing on our end is much easier! That said, you can already purchase your tickets for the 7th grade dance in January. In case this is new to you:
• Go to https://wcpss.schoolcashonline.com and click Register
• Enter first name, last name, and email address, and create a password
• Select a security question
• Select Yes to receive email notifications (note that you will not receive any promotional emails)
• You will receive confirmation by email. Check your spam/junk folder if you don’t receive it.
• Use your email address and password to log in to your account
• Select the item that you would like to purchase and click ADD TO CART
• After you have finished adding items to your cart, click Continue to make your payment
When your child is absent for any reason, please use the attendance email (attendance484@wcpss.net). Please include the student's first and last name, grade/track, reason for absence, and the dates they are absent. This will help code your student accurately. As a reminder, WCPSS Board Policy requires that absence notes are received within 2 days of the absence. If you have any questions about an absence, please contact Mr. Thunes, our Data Manager, at athunes@wcpss.net. If your student is marked absent from a specific class period, please reach out to the teacher first.
- Assignments, grading practices, content questions, class environment, peer issues - Classroom Teachers
- Schedule questions, mental health, family emergencies - Counselors
- Staff concerns, student issues teachers couldn’t resolve, grade level questions - Assistant Principals
- Absences, attendance - attendance484@wcpss.net (this is new)
- Concerns that Assistant Principals were unable to resolve - Principal
Social Worker |
Abbi Williams |
awilliams64@wcpss.net |
6th Grade Counselor |
Cynthia Alcorn |
calcorn@wcpss.net |
6th Grade Assistant Principal |
Keith McLendon |
kmclendon@wcpss.net |
7th Grade Counselor |
Thomas Evanoff |
tevanoff@wcpss.net |
7th Grade Assistant Principal |
Tameka Manning |
tgregg-manning@wcpss.net |
8th Grade Counselor |
Marta Barbian |
mbarbian@wcpss.net |
8th Grade Assistant Principal |
Lisa Adcock |
ladcock2@wcpss.net |
Principal |
Elizabeth Hanna |
ehanna@wcpss.net |
- December 23-January 3 - No School
- January 9 - Basketball Game vs West Lake MS
- January 10 - 7th Grade Dance (permission slid required)
- January 13 - Basketball Game vs Herbert Akins Road MS
- January 17 - Movie Night 3:30-5:30 (permission slip required)
- January 20 - No School
- February 3 - Basketball vs. Apex MS
- February 5 - PTA Meeting at 5:30 in Media Center
- February 13 - Basketball vs. Holly Grove MS
- February 13-19 - Book Fair
- You can access our Year Round Calendars for this year here:

Lufkin Families, thank you for making a difference! You supported our students and staff with your time, financial resources, and enthusiasm, and our school is better for your contributions.
Here are some of good things you brought to Lufkin this year:
🍽️ Staffed lunches with the Cafeteria Crew, giving our teachers a few days off from lunch duty
🧑🏼🏫 Supported nearly $2,400 worth of teacher grants, which purchased art supplies, tech tools, subscription services, and more to enhance classroom instruction
🍦🌯🛒 Raised roughly $1,000 by supporting Spirit Night at Fresh Local Ice Cream and Burrito Shak, and by signing up for our retail partnerships
🍿 Sold concessions at school dances and Movie Night
😋👕 Donated snacks and clothing supplies to Student Support Services
🍂 Helped with fall clean-up at our Campus Beautification Day
⚡ Staffed our BOLTS cart to recognize student success
📣 Spread the word about PTA events and volunteer opportunities as part of our Hype Squad
🔒 Sold student locks at the start of school
🗒️ Attended PTA meetings and WCPSS Advocacy meetings
🍲 Fed teachers and staff at the Staff Appreciation Holiday Pot-Lunch!
🎁 Holiday gifts for teachers and staff (Shh… it’s a surprise!)
Last, but certainly not least, you proved that Lufkin is “Powered by Lightning!” Your generous donations — and word-of-mouth philanthropy — helped us raise more than $14,000 (and counting!) for our no-fuss fundraiser, which makes all of these initiatives possible.
🤔 What did we miss? We know this list is incomplete. The PTA is made up of volunteers with many responsibilities at home, at work, and in our communities, but we live by the motto “Many hands make light work.” Whether you lent a hand on just one day, or offered ongoing support on one of our committees, you made a difference!
Thank you for your support, in whatever way you offered it! We look forward to working together more in 2025.
Our next PTA meeting is February 5 at 5:30 pm — mark your calendar! We’re also planning our first meeting of the 8th Grade Celebrations committee — please sign up here if you’re interested, and stay tuned for more information.
We on the PTA leadership team wish you and your family the happiest of holidays! We’ll see you in the new year.
Vice President - Tina Korzeniowski - lufkinPTAvicepresident@gmail.com
Treasurer - Brooke Kelley - lufkinPTAtreasurer@gmail.com
Secretary - Julie Chase - lufkinPTASecretary@gmail.com